ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997 TAG: 9704100032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GREENEVILLE, TENN.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police said it was robbery and carjacking - not satanism - that motivated the killings.
Madonna Wallen knows her daughter and friends dabbled in the occult, played with Tarot cards and weren't always in control.
But she doesn't believe the murder charges against them, saying ``in their right mind'' they could not have shot a Tennessee family returning from a Jehovah's Witness conference.
``They're not natural-born killers,'' she said. ``Natasha was into the demon part of it, I guess. I feel like if they did do this, than I guess I feel like the demons took over.''
Police said it was robbery and carjacking - not satanism - that motivated the killings.
Vidar Lillelid, 34, and his wife, Delphina, 28, were found dead in a ditch Sunday night along a gravel road three miles from an Interstate 81 rest stop near Baileyton in eastern Tennessee.
Their daughter, Tabitha, 6, was found alive in her father's lap, but died Monday at a hospital. Her brother, Peter, 2, was cradled in his mother's lap. He was in critical condition Wednesday.
Six people, all from the Paintsville, Ky., area, were arrested Tuesday by U.S. Customs agents in Arizona after being turned away from Mexico because of improper paperwork. Officials confirmed their van was the one stolen from the Lillelids.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported Wednesday that the suspects allegedly stole guns, ammunition and $500 from the home of a law enforcement officer in Paintsville, then traveled south.
Charged with three counts of murder were Natasha Wallen Cornett, 18; Edward Dean Mullins, 19; Crystal Renea Sturgill, 18,; Joseph Lance Risner, 20; Jason Blake Bryant, 14; and Karen Renea Howell, 17.
They were being held Wednesday in Bisbee, Ariz., with the adults in the Cochise County Jail and the two minors in a juvenile detention center.
All six suspects made their first court appearance by video Wednesday morning before Justice of the Peace Joe Borane in Douglas.
Borane ordered all six held without bond and said he would appoint public defenders. There was no discussion of whether the suspects would fight extradition.
However, after speaking with Arizona officials, Greene County prosecutor Berkeley Bell said Wednesday in Greeneville: ``I understand they are going to fight extradition.''
Bell said he will seek to have the two minors transferred to adult court for trial and will likely seek the death penalty for the adults.
Madonna Wallen said she caught the group hovering around candles at her house Saturday talking about the end of the world. Howell also had thoughts of self-destruction, said B.J. Harris, 19, a friend of all six.
``Karen has cut herself. She made plans to commit suicide and set a date for it. It was this past weekend,'' she said. ``Natasha basically said they were going to conjure some people and hold a seance and start the Armageddon.''
Despite the role-playing, this wasn't some gang bent on sacrificing anyone, said Jason Cecil, 19, Harris' fiance.
``There's no satanic cult,'' he said. ``We're just a group of friends. Something went wrong and they stuck by each other.''
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB